Nigerian filmmaker and media personality Kemi Adetiba, in partnership with Accelerate TV, has launched the King Women Project. King Women seeks to tell never before told stories of women celebrating their failures and triumphs and extracting important life lessons for all.

The project kicked off last week and airs on Accelerate TV’s YouTube Page every Monday.

Adetiba explained the goal behind the project in an interview with Accelerate TV:

“– What is the inspiration behind King Women?

A lot of people ask me the question, ‘why the name King Women?’ I have had people ask me, are you trying to say that queens are not as strong and important as kings?’ And that’s not the case at all. Now let me tell you a story.

When I was about 13 years old, I remember I was in my mom’s room watching her put on her makeup. Her younger brother, the youngest of the family had just come back from The States and he was there just teasing her like brothers and sisters do. He was poking her in the ribs and he kept on going ‘Obong Awan, Obong Awan’ and my mom would go, ‘Peter stop it oh, Peter leave me alone oh’. It was like a fun thing. And then I remember he turned to me and said ‘Do you know what ‘Obong Awan’ means?’ and I said ‘no I don’t’ and he goes, ‘They are trying to give your Mom a title called Obong Awan but she doesn’t want to take it’. And he says, ‘the direct translation of Obong Awan means “King Woman”.

That term stuck in my head for so many years. My mother is the perfect embodiment of what King Women means to me and she is actually the inspiration behind this series.

– Why did you embark on this interview series?

One of the reasons why I thought it was imperative for me to do the King Women series is that I feel like there were a lot of girls that need direction. There are a lot of girls that feel life happens to them and they don’t know the next step to take, a lot of girls that do not see a way out of their circumstance.

I wanted to bring what I have learnt, somewhat from my mother, to them because I had the benefit of living with my mother, living in the same house, learning at her feet but I do realise that not a lot of girls have the opportunity of having strong female mentors and that is the reason why this series was very important to showcase. So I brought together thirteen amazing, inspirational women just to show these young girls that no matter what life throws at you, you can always beat it and overcome…”

Watch the first installations, an interview with Taiwo Ajayi-Lycett

WOMAN OF THE MONTH: CHIZOR MALIZE

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